Friday, March 6, 2009

The Holodeck

I've been re-watching Star Trek: TNG. I love the show. Watching it now, as an adult, I marvel out how certain episodes have shaped how I feel about various topics. Capt. Picard was unquestionably a role model for me, or, at the least, impacted how I feel an adult should behave.

Changing gears, TNG introduced us, for better of for worse, to the holodeck. The holodeck gave us some of the series best episodes (ok, maybe just hollow pursuits) and some of its worst episodes (most of the other holo-heavy episodes), but however you feel about what its effects on the show's story telling, its difficult to deny the impact that the holodeck, or fully immersive virtually reality, had on the popular consciousness.

Going through some of my Pre-Otaku notes from Facebook, I found this link. No conversation about VR should be without it. The Germans who built it can call it the cyberwalk, if they insist, but we all know what it really is... just a grid of yellow lines away from being the floor of the holodeck.